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Old 07-16-2005, 02:41 PM   #1
Rhadryn
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Registered: Jul 2005
Distribution: SUSE
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Two questions - installation trouble and logging in


I installed Fedora Core 4 on my desktop. The first time it worked and I rebooted, I received no welcome screen, only a dos-like login. Well I reinstalled it and got it to work, but a few minutes ago it sort-of locked up. I would pick a program to run, and the mouse would turn to the hourglass, but the program never loaded. I finally logged off, but that didn't work all the way either; I stared at my wallpaper for five minutes before I manually pushed the power button. Now Fedora loads as that dos-like login screen again, and I would rather not reinstall it at this point. What do I do?

Another thing, I consider this fairly hopeless, but I have an old Dell laptop with Windows 2000 professional. It requires tons of passwords and stuff to get on the internet, but I thought that I might be able to change that by installing linux. I prepared a six gig partition to be formatted, and selected only the essential packages from Fedora. I've tried three times, and each time it gets to the third disc of the Fedora installation, says it has eight minutes left, then randomly reboots the computer. The batteries ran out on the first installation, possibly at that spot. Would that be the cause of the problem? Any ideas on how to fix it?

Last edited by Rhadryn; 07-16-2005 at 02:47 PM.
 
Old 07-16-2005, 03:13 PM   #2
btmiller
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(1) Sounds like your video card is not being configured correctly. What happens if you try to run system-config-display (it may be redhat-config-display). If neither of those work, try conbfiguring with xorgcfg (graphical) or xorgconfig (text based).

(2) Try unplugging all USB devices and setting nousb and noacpi when booting the install media. It's been known to help on laptops, Also check linux-laptops.net (I think it is) for laptop advice.
 
Old 07-16-2005, 03:39 PM   #3
Rhadryn
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Thanks for the reply.

I tried those four commands and only system-config-display displayed anything other than no such command/directory. It, instead, displayed something like "error while loading libSM.so.6; cannot open object file". Any other suggestions?

I couldn't find a linux-laptops.net. How do I set nousb and noacpi when I boot the installation?
 
Old 07-22-2005, 10:33 PM   #4
Rhadryn
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Sorry, but I really do need this problem fixed! *bump*
 
Old 07-22-2005, 10:53 PM   #5
btmiller
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OK, as far as the GUI problem is concerned, what happens if you type "startx" (no quoters) after logging in at the command line?

Also, sorry, it's www.linux-laptop.net -- my mistake.
 
Old 07-22-2005, 11:06 PM   #6
pats
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first that wasn't a 'dos-like' login. it was a real OS. its called the linux shell. beautiful isn't it. you can do almost anything with it. (haven't found anything you can't do - with the exception of maybe 3d modeling or stuff like that)

right GUI stuff. I'm with Mr miller (**** your not called Ben miller are you?****) it must be something to do with your X server config. have you tried logging in and typing 'startx'. most probs won't get you anywhere but its worth a try.

the laptop (why do you need loads of passwords to get on the net? i know windows is sh*t but I've never seen that before. are you choosing linux for the right reasons? sorry i read something the other day about ppl running from windows and going for linux but not getting the philosophy of it. i don't wann put a downer on you but you need to be making the change for the right reasons ie you actually want linux rather than you hate windows.)
sorry about that little rant. its 5 in the morning and i've had a few too many.
a simple google for 'linux laptops net' led me to find that it was in fact www.linux-laptop.net
remember google is your friend for linux. if you have a problem google it and you may find that somone else has had the same problem
fedora does love screwing arround with usb devices on install but i haven't come across it mid install only at the begining (just after 'runnning /sbin/loader' or something similar.) possibly try a different distro like ubuntu/kubuntu and see if that works better. i've heard they have better laptop support

(bumping threads like that aint cool, at least expand on your problem)
 
Old 07-22-2005, 11:39 PM   #7
Rhadryn
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Registered: Jul 2005
Distribution: SUSE
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Alright, I couldn't find anything on the linux laptops site that could help me, but I'm trying the reinstall without any USB devices hooked up. I had one before, so hopefully that will help. I tried to install Mepis, but that didn't work either, though I might try again.

I logged in and tried startx. It gave me the following error "xauth:error while loading shared libraryes:libXmuu.so.1: cannot open shared object file: no such file or directory" about five times, and one other message in the middle that was subtly different, I think it was Xmuu11.so.7, and the rest was the same. Eek.

Thanks for the help, I should have tried reinstalling without the USB before I bumped again, but I didn't think of that at the time, and had no other new information to add. It is nice to know that that is the "linux shell".

I want to switch to Linux because some of the computers at work are on Linux, and I want to know what to do if they crash or something. Also, I'm just sort-of bored with windows. That's the excuse for the desktop. For the laptop... basically it cannot get on the internet without a lot of codes, and I am hoping Linux will solve this problem. It would probably be easier to reformat and reinstall windows, but I don't have the original software so that could present a big problem.
 
Old 07-23-2005, 09:51 AM   #8
Rhadryn
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Registered: Jul 2005
Distribution: SUSE
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I finally got Ubuntu to work on my laptop, but it is still having trouble connecting to the internet. I installed ndiswrapper, but now I am not sure which .inf file to use.I have followed the instructions for ndiswrapper up until I am supposed to install the .inf file. My wireless card is Xircom 32-bit, yes, a strange one.

Still no luck on the desktop, see the above message. >.<
 
Old 07-23-2005, 01:43 PM   #9
btmiller
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I'm afraid I'm not going to be too much more help on the laptops issue (and yes Benjamin is my real first name, although I actually go by something else).

As for your startx problem, sounds like you're definitely missing something on your system. You might try running rpm -V xorg-libs (I think that's the Xorg library package) to verify that all your Xorg packages are set correctly. You should probably do the same with your other Xorg and font packages. The -V argument to RPM will verify that the package is installed correctly. If something is wrong, try reinstalling that particular package and try again.
 
Old 07-24-2005, 07:38 AM   #10
Rhadryn
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Registered: Jul 2005
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After running reinstalls and updates and checks, I decided that my Fedora is flawed beyond repair, so I have switched to SUSE and it works quite well. I also put SUSE on my laptop. Now, all I need is to find a driver for my laptop's wireless card. Where could I find that?
 
Old 07-24-2005, 12:31 PM   #11
btmiller
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I usually just Google for the card model plus Linux. You should get something back.
 
  


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